David Krut Projects is pleased to present On soft ground, a showcase of works by Heidi Fourie chronicling her recent residency at the David Krut Workshop (DKW). Back in 2019, Fourie collaborated with the DKW on her first series of etchings titled Grass you can swim in. Heidi became interested in shifting her practice – taking her sketchbooks into nature and drawing from life.In 2022 Heidi was invited for a residency, enabling her to shift her studio environment and have the opportunity to develop much larger works. During this time, Heidi experimented with mediums that would replicate marks made with multi-coloured pencils in her sketchbooks, into large format works.Heidi chose soft pastels to imitate this drawn mark, using her sketches as reference. Alongside these larger-than-life soft pastel works on board and intimate notebook sketches, new softground etchings are presented – Heidi’s first foray into this print medium that imitates the gently drawn mark. The softground etchings were created in the workshop in collaboration with printer Kim-Lee Loggenberg between periods of drawing on her larger mixed media works. The palette of these is earthy, whilst still bringing colour to a usually monochromatic medium. Beginning with a sketch, these editions have a looseness and sense of movement that perfectly captures Heidi’s lyrical marks.Heidi continues to delve into the subject for which she has become well-known – exploration of the natural world and our immersion in it. For this body of work she has been inspired by secluded scenes of crevices and rocky gorges, with that particular quality of light that, she says, cannot be captured by a camera. Emerging from the landscape, whether human or non-human, are ghostly forms, imitating tree branches, fallen boulders and floating buoys.
Join us for the opening on Saturday 9 July from 10am, at THE BLUE HOUSE, 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood.
We will have a discussion with the artist about her experience of the residency and working in these new mediums.
Request a catalogue at [email protected]
